|
|
| Line 7: |
Line 7: |
| It is also helpful to realize that additional information concerning your family lines may appear online at any time. It is a good idea to review this type of source from time to time to see if there have been any additions. | | It is also helpful to realize that additional information concerning your family lines may appear online at any time. It is a good idea to review this type of source from time to time to see if there have been any additions. |
|
| |
|
| === The Preliminary Search Standard ===
| |
|
| |
| Your search in "compiled sources" should include four fundamental steps:
| |
|
| |
| 1. Preliminary search in home sources
| |
|
| |
| 2. Preliminary search for compiled genealogies, biography, local history
| |
|
| |
| 3. Search in compiled indexes sources (and then in the original record) in the host country of settlement
| |
|
| |
| 4. Search in compiled indexes sources (and then in the original record) in the country of origin (works as a first-step IF surname is not too common)
| |
|
| |
| <br>
| |
|
| |
| ==== Step 1. Home Sources ====
| |
|
| |
| Thoroughly scour all home sources (including family history papers, copies of records, pictures, old letters (i.e. with an old address), family Bibles, journals/dairies, copies of vital record certificates and church records, memorabilia, interviews with extended family and close relatives’--and ensure the searching their home premises for family records, as well as interviewing old neighbors--all of which may prove very helpful! If we do not seek these and scan all to ascertain important details about our immigrant ancestors, we cannot honestly say that our (preliminary) search is completed.
| |
|
| |
| ==== Step 2. Compiled Genealogies, Biography, Local history ====
| |
|
| |
| The preliminary search continues by requiring you to initiate the next vital step—the standard procedure—of seeking for and searching compiled sources. Such compiled sources to search for includes published or manuscript sources on families found in libraries and archives; pedigrees, biographies, autobiographies, town and local histories, and online family genealogies. To some, this is the ‘ugly duckling’ aspect of the research process but nevertheless, a vital phase of doing standard (proper) due diligence. Like in the field of science, a post-graduate who seeks an advanced degree, or the research scientist seeking a government-sponsored grant to fund a campaign of forensic or frontier research in a chosen field of study, the proper preliminary search-protocol requires diligent and broad-spectrum searches for, and in, compiled sources to determine what’s already researched and thus far discovered in the chosen area of scientific study. Every researcher—family history 'beginner' or scientist—must do the same, diligently!
| |
|
| |
| In seeking to locate compiled sources on your family lines, it pinpoints on a ‘map’ more precisely where you’ve ‘arrived’, in your research. If you don't learn what’s already “known” or a given, about your family, how will you know where you want to go if you don’t know the current point to where you’ve progressed in your family’s historical research? If your preliminary searches stop with closet, attic, or the basement-shelves searches in family and home sources, then you are in danger of ignoring a whole world of additional compiled sources beckoning you to discover them. Do not restrict nor limit your chances to discover ancestry [as] compiled by competent researchers who have made a galant effort to research ancestral connections and genealogies in a comprehensive and thorough manner! To smugly fold the arms, cock the head back and think, ‘That’s all I need to know; now let’s start researching in original and primary record sources’—is naïve at least and, at worst it short-circuits the comprehensive research process (which includes a thorough investigation into obtaining all available compiled sources)! This heavily ignored ‘Second step’ is still a viable vital step in the research process and is to be a part of every researcher's search strategy. Every researcher should employ the step to seek out and search for outside (home/family) "compiled sources" by the (especially) genuinely competent researcher[s], who've made their "findings" public. Regrettably, it is the most overlooked part of the research process, and is routinely discarded and usually is rarely considered standard procedure. Millions worldwide currently seek their ancestry; most of them have made some progress and are or have shared their findings by making them accessible in some form or manner. Why not expend the effort to seek and obtain these “findings”? Conversely, why would any "researcher" turn the nose up at someone else's documented compilations who clearly have lavished an intense passion, thousands of hours of research work, and if not, sacrificed thousands in monies to appropriately document their genealogy! For those who may argue that the compilations of others aren't worth the time spent to "find" them, due to "mistakes", fuzzy data and/or incorrect conclusions, we should ask: Why would any true genealogist or passionate family history buff discard this standard of seeking and searching in compiled sources outside the home, by narrowly considering that no one else is “qualified” to research? For every thousand family history compilers, there are some very competent researchers and writers among them who have researched and compiled a credible--if not well-polished, or professional-level family history. It is especially for these latter "credible" compilations of competent researchers of which make it especially worthy of our time spent to seek-out, review and assimilate their compiled data.
| |
|
| |
| Every researcher should employ this ‘Second step’ in the research process—and yet it is also the most overlooked part of the research process and not always considered standard procedure.
| |
|
| |
| <br>
| |
|
| |
| ===== Find and Search “Compiled Sources”: A List =====
| |
|
| |
| Here’s a great place to start for a "list" of resources of where to begin to find online, or published and manuscript (compiled) sources on family surnames and lineages: Online family genealogy sites, pedigrees, family history, etc. sites:
| |
|
| |
|
| *World catalog at http://worldcat.org/. In the 'Subject' field enter the surname plus the word “family” e.g., Prescott Family. This searches the catalogs and displays the results from thousands of especially U.S. libraries at once. | | *World catalog at http://worldcat.org/. In the 'Subject' field enter the surname plus the word “family” e.g., Prescott Family. This searches the catalogs and displays the results from thousands of especially U.S. libraries at once. |
| Line 89: |
Line 58: |
| *World Vital Records at www.worldvitalrecords.com with over a billion record entries | | *World Vital Records at www.worldvitalrecords.com with over a billion record entries |
|
| |
|
| *[[Family_History_Library_Internet_Favorites|Family History Library Internet Favorites]] at www.fhlfavorites.info; search name of British country, then “General” then under “Genealogy” and “Biography” etc. | | *[[Family History Library Internet Favorites|Family History Library Internet Favorites]] at www.fhlfavorites.info; search name of British country, then “General” then under “Genealogy” and “Biography” etc. |
|
| |
|
| *Ancestral Findings at www.ancestralfindings.com has several offerings worth searching | | *Ancestral Findings at www.ancestralfindings.com has several offerings worth searching |